empowering young writers online

The Dust Bunnies

by Annie Song

I was lying on my bed, eating some cranberries. My name is Skyler and I was tired out. It had been a long and busy morning and it was only 1:00! My family lived in a farm and since it was summer, we had to work harder than ever. My older sister most of the time was hanging out with her friends so I was left with the hard work. I had only a 14-year-old sister called Raven, a 7-year-old sister named Piper, and a 23 year older brother who was Andrew, who didn’t seem to care about the farm. Me, my mom, and my dad did the dirty work.
Mom and I had sheared some of the sheep and milk many of the cows. We had told Raven to make some butter, but she was ‘busy’ and had walked off which make more work for us.
I sighed. I wanted to take a nap so I plopped my face buried in the pillow and tried to sleep. I heard a noise like the one in movies when there is a flash of magic. I turned to look. What magic could happen in a normal house in New Jersey? Boy, I was wrong.
There, right in front of me, was a dust bunny. I scolded myself for thinking it could be magic. I whisked it away.
“What ya think you doing?” an annoyed voice grumbled. Startled, I jerked my head up and look around. The dust bunny was still there. I was about to wave at it again when the voice shouted, “Don’t you think about doing that again!”
I stopped my hand in midair and looked around. “Who’s saying that stuff?” I questioned my bedroom. Silence.
“I’m right here!!” cried another voice, more high pitched than the other. I swerved from right to left, looking all about when I noticed, that another dust bunny was floating in the air.
“It’s you who is talking isn’t it?” I asked the dust bunnies in the air.
A dust bunny laughed. “You’re a clever one! I never thought humans could be so smart!”
“Yep!” the other dust bunny said. Then the bunnies started whispering to each other. Finally, the dust bunnies started talking to me again.
“Do you know about dust bunnies?” questioned the first bunny.
“I know,” I told him. “They’re puffs of dust that make people cough and sneeze.”
“Those are the boring dust bunnies,” the higher pitched dust bunny told me. “But the good bunnies, are right in front of you.”
In a flash, the puff of dust turned around, reveling black eyes, a black round nose, a smiling mouth, and four black legs. The best part was the cute little ears made of dust. When they moved, sparks flew behind them. They look like mini jet packs zooming around, showing off their flying skills.
I watched them in awe. “Wow,” was the only thing I could say.
Then my mind cleared and suddenly, I was full of questions about these creatures. “What are your names? Mine is Skyler,” I added just to be polite.
“I’m Diz,” said the male dust bunny.
“And I’m Pip!” said the other dust bunny. “We’re brother and sister.”
I ask so many questions in the next 7 minutes, then after that, I knew dust bunnies like I knew how to spell my name.
Dust bunnies, were formed by dust {of course} and lived in dusty places like under beds. Apparently, a whole family of dust bunnies lived under my bed. They could fly whenever they wanted. When they flew, sparks helped them fly. They were kind of like humans, they could get sick, they slept at night, and they weren’t immortal. They ate buttercups {the flower}, marshmallows, cranberries, and drank milk. They owed a debt to humans for making them so; they helped humans whenever they could.
“So we could be your sidekicks or something,” finished Pip.
“Sidekicks? Do we have a mission or something?” I asked.
“Sure we have a mission,” Diz told me. “It’s to help your family!”
“How are we going to help my family? That isn’t such a good mission.”
“Okay, how about we help each other?” suggested Diz. “We can be with you all day long! Put us in your pockets or something. We’ll be your friends. We can explore the world!”
“I’ve always wanted to see a cow! And a potato!” Pip shouted. “Could you take me to see one?”
“You’ve never seen a cow or a potato?” I asked, startled.
“Nope,” Pip told me. “Mom said cows are dangerous.”
Well that’s a good mom I thought.
“What about a potato? They aren’t dangerous.”
“Oh, Mom says that potatoes are dangerous because she doesn’t know what they are.” Pip explained cheerfully.
“Well?” asked Diz. “You want to be friends?” I had never had a person or a dust bunny ask me that question before.
“Sure.” I decided. “Why not?”
“Exactly!” Pip shouted.
I was excited. I had two new friends and just learned about a new creature.
“Skyler!” Mom shouted.
I sighed and said good-bye to my new friends. They vanished and I headed downstairs. Who knew that a new friendship could get started because one person wanted to see a cow and a potato?